A Promethean Errand
by Abi Sain
Summary: The first segment of "The Mission Logs of Invader Zim," the story opens in the aftermath of the "Irken Invasion" where an adolescent Dib resigns to a quiet life, following the disappearance of the Irken, Invader Zim. Dib, as a favor to his associate Tuna-ghost, works towards unravelling bizarre documents and unwittingly proceeds into a terrible drama ending in his death.


Part I

A Short Account of the Aftermath of the Irken Invasion

Chapter 1

Dib Membrane

Three years ago Dib had inquired into a bizarre, transfer student named Zim and proceeded, unwittingly, into a terrible ordeal that would follow him to his death and afterward. An Invader, both in title and in function, Zim was assigned by his leaders, the inanely titled Almighty Tallest, to wrest control of the Earth for the benefit of the Irken Empire. Having learned of Zim's mission, Dib attempted to inform the public, but the boy's queer behavior and young age, had discredited his claims. He persisted, however, to monitor the Invader, confident that with hard evidence and proper reasoning, he could rally the people and spare them whatever horror Zim would rest on them.

The affair had benefited Dib with a wealth knowledge and experience, but came short of advancing his goal. Prior to the end of the Invasion, Dib was purposefully launched into an explosion, mutated into an unearthly, sausage mutant, and even, to his abject horror, coerced into hugging the petulant alien. He should have fallen into the hands of the omnicidal Invader, had it not been for Zim's volatile state of mind, which had spared Dib and the Earth from certain destruction.

The indignities suffered from his prolonged hardships had left Dib dejected, and more convinced of his forthcoming doom. Left to himself, he rallied, and had gathered a sizable collection of Irken goods, when Zim suddenly vanished. For months Dib had loitered around the blind alley which the Invader's base had occupied, and when at last he accepted Zim's absence, he had graduated from middle school, with his already scant reputation irretrievably ruined.

There was not a single familiar face in the incorrectly named Hi-Skool, and Dib was free from the contempt, thrust upon him since he had first expressed an independent thought. Under the circumstances, he had kept to himself, avoiding the dense, meaningless existence which the youths of the city were drawn towards. For the first months of the semester, he had become a quiet and studious boy, popular with the shiftless students eager to pick his brain. Their kindness, a quality more alien to Dib than Zim himself, had encouraged a great deal of enthusiasm and courage in the boy who, overtime, would become more outspoken. So alarming were his ideas, that the students cautiously distanced themselves from him, afraid that the boy oddness was a forerunner to lunacy.

Such a shift in opinion did not escape his father. A highly respected scientist, he along with his peers disapproved of Dib's ill-bearing para-science, and was pressured to put an end to the boys unpleasant beliefs. Dib soon realized that he would either have to pursue his studies in silence and feign compliance to public convention, or continue to defend his beliefs, further testing his fathers patience who, if his threats were any indication, was not opposed to having him committed into psychiatric care. Choosing the former, he began by shedding any evidence of his interest in paranormal science, and pursuing his studies in a less frequented site.

Following his decision, Dib was standing in line at the Búger Bagel deli, when someone tapped him on the shoulder, and turning around, Dib recognized the woman as Tuna-ghost, a member of the Swollen Eyeball Network. Being members of an online community, Dib never imagined that he would actually meet her or anyone else on the network, but the presence of a fellow enthusiast was welcoming nonetheless. Dib hailed her with enthusiasm, and after receiving their respective orders, sat together by the window.

"Fancy seeing you here Moth-man," she said in undisguised tenderness, "You haven't been on the wire for some time, some of us thought you up and left."

"No, I've just been busy with a few things," said Dib. He gave a short summary of his situation, and had hardly concluded when he noticed how attentive Tuna-ghost was. He had not realized how openly, and easily, he was speaking to her, and Dib's body tensed.

"You poor thing," she said commiseratingly, after she had listened to his misfortunes. "But it cannot be helped if people choose to be stupid."

"I suppose," he said. "Although it has given me far more free time than I know to do with."

"In that case," she remarked, "I have some work being done, and I could use the help, if its not too much trouble."

"Not at all," he replied, "If you wouldn't mind my helping, I would be glad to. I would prefer having something else to do besides watching tv."

Tuna-ghost looked at him joyfully over her coffee. "Glad to hear, I have been having some problems with some files Dark-bootie sent me."

"Is it that hard?" asked Dib.

"Not at all, I managed to untangle most of the gibberish, but there are a few pockets of data that I can't seem to crack. I tried calling him, but he hasn't replied."

"A secret project, I suppose?" said Dib.

"It must be, he sent similar files to a few others in the network. But their not going to pry into anything handed to them by an elite. Hell Igot all hyped up when the old man called me."

"You didn't ask him what it was for?" said Dib.

"You don't know Dark-bootie like I do, he's not easy to draw out."

"I wouldn't mind seeing these files," said Dib. "It would be a good use of my time. Plus it would put me up to speed with what the SEN's up to. Would you believe my dad bugged my computer to keeps track of my apps and browser history?"

Tuna-ghost snickered jovially. "Wow thats really screwed up, I never figured your dad to be one of those."

"Yeah," said Dib embarrassingly. "So how can I get the files?"

"I got it all in a usb. We can drive around to my place in a few and pick it up."

"Sure," said Dib and the conversation drifted into other channels.

The two made their way to the domicile in a cab, after leaving the deli. Tuna-ghost was providing Did with a few more particulars, regarding the errand which he would undertake.

"I don't know how many people are working on this project," she said. "But it would best that you don't ask around the network, if you find yourself stuck."

"If its too difficult, i'll just hand it back to you," said Dib. "But," added Dib incredulously, "I think some extra help would be good, if its as difficult as you make it to be. Was this suppose to be secret?"

"I really don't know," said Tuna-ghost. "Most of the time, we are working on our own stuff, getting whatever help we can from the other users. As far as I know, only Dark-bootie, for the most part, has remained out of the wire, and none of us know him personally. To be fair, the old man's always been helpful. He seems to know more about the paranormal than any of us."

"You don't have to tell me," said Dib.

"Yeah, but when you get a message from him asking for help, you can't stop yourself from saying yes."

"True," said Dib.

"This is a once in a lifetime chance, and I don't want to screw it up. If word got out that Dark-bootie was looking for help, everyone will try to get in on it."

"Don't worry, I won't tell anyone," said Dib. "I doubt they would believe me anyway. Seems like most of the SEN think I'm crazy."

"Thanks," said Tuna-ghost. "I know it a lot to ask, but I promise to make it up to you."

It was already evening when the cab had stopped to park. The two walked down the block and passed through the front door, ascending the old, wooden staircase which led to Tuna-ghost's apartment.

The room which Tuna-ghost had escorted Dib, was a cramped space dominated by a broad high table, carrying three monitors and numerous external drives, all connected to a large pc tower, its thick tubes regularly pumping coolant. There were a number of plastic drawers across from them and, after motioning Dib to be seated, Tuna-ghost had pulled from one of the drawers, a small drive, emblazoned with the symbol of the SEN.

"The files are pretty large and it will take a bit to copy everything," she said. Fiddling with her keyboard, a program began to run and the tower hummed softly.

Turning round, she said with a smirk, "Would you like something to drink?"

"Sure," replied Dib softly.

Looking about, Dib surveyed the room, noting the various tools and materials littered on the table. Underneath, he noticed a scanner atop a jumble of worn books. After much strain, Dib was involuntarily muttering the titles.

"Still talking to yourself, Mothman," said Tuna-ghost humorously.

Dib jerked upward, his eyes partially looking at Tuna-ghost. The young woman laughed, noting the tinge of red in Dib's features. Handing him a bottled water, she seated herself beside the monitors when Dib spoke.

"Are you scanning all of those books," asked Dib.

"Yep," answered Tuna-ghost. "Their pretty old and out of print. It was a pain, finding all of them. Come, a few more years and they'll probably be all gone."

"I've never seen titles like these. Where did you get them?"

"Most of them are given to me by guys in the network. I have them scanned, translated, and organized, before I store them in one of these drives."

"Ever find anything useful?" asked Dib.

"More than I can count. In fact, some of the hardware I use is based on old schematics I found. The coolant used for this computer is not found anywhere else on Earth."

"Really," exclaimed Dib in astonishment, "But if you have all that hardware, why haven't I heard about it?"

Tuna-ghost shrugged her shoulders. "You'll have to bring that up with the others. All I do is take the bits of data they give me and try to make sense out of them. My guess is, they haven't found too many people willing to take a chance on their finds. If anything of ours 'is' floating around out there, it probably hasn't gotten much attention."

"Doesn't make any sense," said Dib. "You always hear about anything made in my dads lab. Just last week he announced a project for synthetic beef. Everyone was talking about it."

Tuna-ghost shrugged her shoulders. "Your dad is a celebrity, we're not. The things that we do are not important to anyone," she said. She jerked her thumb to the monitor, "Hell, what we're doing will probably remained buried for years, before people start to notice. Thats just how it is."

Dib was reminded of his engagement with Zim, and how the people had tended towards whatever inane excuse the Irken had spouted. That these same people, who would not recognize Zim's plain ambitions, would reject or ignore any marvel of science not credited to familiar sources, was not entirely farfetched. But it did not excuse the absurdity of their decision, and Dib knew the consequences of willful ignorance.

Fiddling again with her keyboard, Tuna-ghost pulled the drive from its port and had handed it to Dib.

"These drives are the only things that can safely store this kind of information, and emailing it will just appear as a scrambled mess. So message me if anything."

"Sure thing," said Dib and making his way home, he realized that he had never asked Tuna-ghost what her name was.

* * *

**Authors Note:** Being new to novel writing, putting together the first chapter was quite stressful and even now I am unsatisfied. A significant problem when writing a fan-ficiton, is retaining the original personalities of the characters. It is my hope that the readers will bring to light any errors, which I may have overlooked.


End file.
